David Attoub has been banned for 70 weeks for gouging in a match against Ulster. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

The Stade Français prop David Attoub has launched an appeal against the 70-week ban he received this week for gouging the eyes of the Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris last month. Even if the appeal fails, he hopes to be allowed to play in France before the end of his suspension in April next year.

Attoub says that if his appeal fails – his club colleague Julien Dupuy only secured a one-week reduction on a technicality after appealing against a six-month ban for making contact with Ferris's eyes in the same Heineken Cup match – he will take his case to the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. Under French law, LNR has to ratify any suspension handed out ­outside France. It has the power to quash or reduce a ban, but if it does so the player concerned is only able to play in France. If LNR upholds the sanctions against Dupuy and Attoub, the players will be able to take their cases to the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français. Last year, the CNOSF allowed the Perpignan hooker Marius Tincu to play in the Top 14 after he received an 18-week ban for ­gouging in a Heineken Cup match against the Ospreys.

"Seventy weeks is hard to understand and I had the same judge [Jeff Blackett] who heard the Tincu and Dupuy cases," said Attoub. "We are going to appeal to European Rugby Cup Ltd. Then we will turn to the LNR and then to the CNOSF. I did not do anything intentionally."

The LNR president, Pierre-Yves Revol, said his organisation was studying Attoub's case. He also said the ban would not automatically be applied in France. Stade Français have criticised the punishments given to Dupuy and Attoub, claiming the players have been the victims of British injustice.

"We are awaiting the outcome of the appeal," said Revol. "There is a ­procedure for applying an ERC [European Rugby Cup] suspension to a ­particular country. The LNR will have to reprocess this file and reconsider it. This will happen after the outcome of the appeal is known. What is certain is that this decision does not automatically extend to national territory. It will be the subject of careful examination."

The International Rugby Board set up a working party last year after the Tincu case and a consequence of its report is that the French Rugby Federation will have to fight ERC's case before the LNR and, if necessary, the CNOSF, which in the past has ruled that long suspensions impinge on the right of a player to earn a living. If Dupuy and Attoub earn reprieves, the IRB's disciplinary system, which sees a player banned from all tournaments, not just the one he offended in, will need to be reviewed.

England, meanwhile, will play four autumn Tests this year, with all three major southern-hemisphere nations coming to Twickenham. The game against New Zealand on 4 December will be played outside the international window but the Rugby Football Union will have no problem getting players released, because of the deal with Premier Rugby which allows for a fourth Test every two years.

Australia, as they did last November, will start the autumn schedule, followed by Samoa, who will be making their first appearance at Twickenham for five years, and South Africa. The All Blacks will finish off what will be a demanding series for Martin Johnson's men less than a year before the start of World Cup in New Zealand.